The Blame Game

So Minneapolitans are obsessed with death and weather. At least, watching the first fifteen minutes of any of the four local newscasts suggests a particular fascination with all things morbid or climatic. The juiciest stories seem to be those that combine death *and* weather, so any trailer park decimated by a hurricane gets top billing.

One thing we have noticed during the full quarter of each newscast devoted to the weather is that any unsavoury weather patterns must be identified in terms of source for proper attribution of blame. Blizzards? From Colorado. Rain? A pipeline coming up from the Gulf of Mexico. Bitterly cold northerly winds? Canada.

The animosity with which they refer to Canada is quite pronounced. Canada - land of igloos and snowdogs. Canada - land of polite but frigid folks. Canada - source of curse-eliciting discomfort and grumbling parka-hunting.

Having returned to my fair country of citizenship for American Thanksgiving, I find myself tempted to agree. It's FREEZING up here! -18 degrees?! Quite a shock to the old system. I actually had to break out the parkas and toques ("winter hats" as they are known down south) in anticipation of our heading back to the North Country.

That said, there's always warmth from family and friends when we come back, so that keeps us pretty toasty. Right now the kids are busily decorating Christmas boxes for the cats to sleep in. The Husband is taking advantage of the local mechanic's shop (i.e. my in-laws' garage) to change the oil in the car. And I'm still basking in the afterglow of yesterday's book club - I loves me some book talk!

It's also lovely to be back on Canadian soil. Particularly on Black Friday. I got tired last week just watching the commercials announcing that Kohl's was starting its post-Thanksgiving sale at 4 AM. 4 AM?! Crazy consumerism. We may be shivering, but at least we've avoided the economic/foreign policy of "Buy. Buy! BUY!!" embraced by so many for the low monthly payment of "in credit card debt for the rest of your life." For now, anyway. We've still got to get through the next month of pre-Christmas pressure to purchase.